Our Export services network performance report provides an overview of the growing role that customer exports have within the electricity distribution networks in the National Electricity Market and the Northern Territory.
It analyses operational and performance data from the 14 DNSPs operating in these markets in 2022–23 such as customer numbers, export limits, capital and operational expenditure, timings of connection agreements and more.
Export service customers are those with solar installations, such as household rooftop solar, that are too small to be considered generators by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).
Key findings include:
- 8% of all electricity delivered by DNSPs was sourced from export customers in 2022–23.
- 25% of all network customers now use export services, up from 21% two years ago.
- Only 3% of these customers have batteries.
- 68% have smart meters, up from 56% two years ago.
- DNSPs used only a small proportion (less than 1%) of their total expenditure to provide export services throughout the year.
- The average static export limit applied to customers was 5.6kVA.
- 4 DNSPs trialled flexible export limits, where the customer could export more than the static export limit at different times of the day.
- New technologies are being deployed to reduce the constraints on customers exporting to the network, such as inverters that are capable of voltage response or flexible export limits.
- The average time for connection agreements with customers on a model standing offer was less than 4 days for all but one DNSP.
The report aims to support government agencies in making more informed regulatory and policy decisions and assist customers and solar installers in investment and operating decisions.